1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a curved touch panel and a method for fabricating the same, in particular to a curved touch panel formed by chemically strengthening, acid-etching, and attached by adhesive.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, heating glass at over 500° C. which is transition temperature or softening point for glass has been used to fabricate curved glass, and usually by helping of a mold of desired curvature in a furnace of batch or line type.
However, there were limitations such that different metal mold is needed for each different curvature or size of glass, to result in high costs and late delivery. In addition, after the heating step, the glass may be bended unexpectively due to change in thermal condition or depending on slow cooling condition and different unstable speed. And, when co-using the mold, flaw or crack of surface thereof could affect glass products, to lead faults such as pit or scratch. Furthermore, low productivity, high cost for facilities, and large consumption of energy to maintain high temperature are all weakness of the conventional way.
Heating and mold-using method to achieve curved products has been conventional in the field of metal and plastic industry. But, especially about glass, high temperature over 500° C. is needed for glass products and heat-treated glass could return to originally flat shape if long lasting slow-cooling is not involved. In addition, distortion could happen if heat is not uniformly applied throughout the glass.
Moreover, due to the heating treatment of high temperature, there have been problems such as striking (color change due to heat treatment), surface or internal defects of glass by condensation of volatile component, functional degradation of glass sensors, and color change of printed resin. It's also hard to control external diameter of curvature under high temperature condition. Therefore, a way is needed to achieve curvature of glass, which is able to perform under low temperature to resolve the above problems of the conventional way.